Guess what? Ramblings concerning Steven Rogers. Because it's my birthday. Shut up.
"It is our choices, far more than our abilities, that make us who we are." - Albus Dumbledore
You know, with my ongoing, pondering obsession over Bruce Banner and Steven Rogers - but more recently Steven Rogers, because I'm still amazed at how much the character of an American patriot superhero grew on me - I've come to a very, very strange conclusion: I love superheroes, especially the type with some sort of physical modification - but I do not actually care much about the superhero aspect of them. It's almost always the human aspect I'm ten times more interested in. (which is kind of the opposite to how I feel about merpeople.) I don't care much about The Hulk, frankly, but have a deep love and admiration for Bruce Banner. I almost never refer to Captain America as Captain America, but always Steven Rogers. (And it's Steven, not Steve, because Steven was what his enlistment form said, and Steve isn't a name. It's an insult.) It's not even that I care so much about the struggle between man and mask, as Linkara would put it. The only one to which that one would apply is Spider-Man, and I haven't thought about him since Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3.
It goes for a lot of both Marvel and DC villains, too: The thing that affected me so much about Clayface in the animated Batman was the way he was force-fed a ton of that formula and you could hear him gagging and groaning. (Watch that scene again. Jesus Fucking Christ.) I'm not frightened of the Scarecrow, but I am terrified like you wouldn't believe of Jonathan M. Crane. (The M standing for motherfucking.) Doc Ock is not half as interesting to me as Dr. Otto Octavius.
Odd thought here: Maybe that's another reason why I just don't get the big fuss made over the Joker. (No, I will not shut up about this.) He's - gasp - the Joker, but he's never anything but the Joker. Then again, that also kinda works for Bane, and Bane is a fucking monster. ...Point is, Heath Ledger's Joker still bores me to tears.
Let's look at my current obsession with the Captain America movie: I actually cared much less about the scenes depicting him as Captain America kicking ass with a shield and doing ludicruous jumps - though there were bits of that that were admittedly badass - than about the scenes that depicted him as a simple, though ambitious, American soldier, standing over a map and making plans. That's actually a big indicator towards why I love this man so much: Knowing that what made him a hero wasn't the costume, or the shield, or even the supersoldier serum, but his unwavering desire to do good. I disagree with Tony: What made him special did not come out of a bottle. The bottle contained merely a catalyst for what's already there. (And, lest we forget, there was a chance that it might either horribly disfigure, or kill him.) Think about it: He doesn't actually act any differently with the serum inside him than when he was still scrawny as an upside-down broomstick. The athletic body did not come with a personality confidence overhaul - I don't think I'd like the guy remotely as much if that were the case - instead, the serum merely gave him the strength to finally do what he wanted. The dude falsified his enlistment form five or six times because he wanted to fight, and even if the serum administration hadn't worked, he still would've run after that spy, probably lasting for about ten metres and then proceeding to cough his asthmatic lungs out.
That is the central point of his personality: Steven Rogers fights. He fights and fights and fights, like a cornered rat. A cornered rat with asthma and underdeveloped limbs that is also being punctured by needles and pumped full of experimental goo and radiation. (I will NOT shut up about this.)
It does make him a bit of an overambitious moron with no sense of self-preservation - just because I admire the man doesn't mean I can't point out when he's being palm-on-forehead irresponsible - but he's neither a coward nor a hypocrite, and that, in a nutshell, is the essence of what I admire about his character. You can make a character noble and kind and still make him fun to watch, if it's portrayed sincerely. Not every character needs a token "bad streak" - sometimes, just struggling to be who you are can be fascinating. Steven Rogers is not a goody-two-shoes. A goody-two-shoes is someone who does good simply because they lack the imagination to do anything else. Rogers? Has seen Hell, and he's seen people at their absolute worst. He is good because he continuously, consciously chooses to do good, even when it goes against orders. And that is why I love him.
And what about the Captain America persona? Here's the thing: The costume is a militarized version of his figurehead stage costume, and you could clearly see in the first movie that Rogers is not a person who enjoys the glare of the spotlight. It's not that he considers himself above such things, it's just not his thing. He did the stage act because it's in his nature to follow orders - unless they conflict with his moral compass - but he's no Howard Stark. Damn, he's the Anti-Stark - his place is in that reconnaisance room, in that (unbelievably sexy) military uniform, or on the battlefield with the other soldiers. He often doesn't know what to do with attention, and women? Those go all over his head. There's one scene where an audacious blonde secretary makes a clear move on him, going so far as to forcibly kiss him, and you could clearly see - again - that he had about as much of a clue how to deal with it as a 14-year old boy has. I actually really enjoyed that, because in 99,9% of cases in such scenes, the man eventually mentally goes 'Hell yeah!“ and totally goes into the kiss. But that's not Rogers - he doesn't see his athletic body as a means to pick up chicks, he has a deep respect for women, but keeps his distance because he does not understand them. Even his crush on Peggy has a very innocent feel to it, a lot of eye contact, but very little touching. The only exception to this being the moment where he steps out of that booth after the serum has been administered, but even that is remarkably, and delightfully, downplayed.
See, what I enjoy in both The Avengers and the Captain America movie is that Marvel had the guts - and the respect - to make Steven Rogers that old-fashioned, instead of desperately trying to modernize him for the kids of today. I have no clue about the comics, of course, but in the moves it felt like this man has a legacy they wanted to stay true to. I'm still unsure whether I want to check out Captain America comics, because I'm kind of stuck in my comfort zone: I adore the movie interpretation of the character, and if the original comic version of him is any different, I'd have to rework that image. For now, just let me adore the movie version. It's already a miracle that I fell in love with this character in the first place.
In a way, Steven Rogers is the complete opposite of Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne needs the alter-ego of Batman, needs the symbolism of the dark knight to identify with. You cannot separate Bruce Wayne from Batman. Steven Rogers on the other hand could easily ditch the costume and still continue to do what he does, because he knows the costume is what other people need for reassurance. ("I need men in those buildings.") Above all, Steven Rogers is a soldier, and he doesn't need anything else. Think about it: Near the end of the movie, he's lying on that bed dressed in nothing but a shirt, trousers and shoes - and he's still Captain America.
"That is why you were chosen."
"Captain Rogers---“
Oh yeah, and lest we forget: This man went through the absolute worst fate I can imagine, aside from, say, having a monstrous alter ego inside yourself that gets released if you lose control (What was that guy's name again?) Falling asleep and waking up just to realize his entire fucking world is GONE. Gone like a soap bubble, like a dream upon waking up. Instead of letting him rest after his sacrifice in peace, someone decided to yank him back into the world and re-enlist him without asking. (This bugs me more than it should.) Gone in the blink of an eye. And Steven Rogers? He carries on.
"At ease, soldier. You gonna be okay?"
"...Yeah. Yeah, it's just...I had a date."
Seriously. SERIOUSLY. Seriously. This man. I have no words.